The perfect naming convention for your advertising campaigns - How to do it right

A clean naming convention is the cornerstone of a well-structured ad account. It provides more insights, clarity, efficiency and makes collaboration between teams easier.

In this article, you will learn everything you need to know about the optimal naming convention and which structure we recommend.

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💡 Key Take-Away

Ad name: Date | ProductName | AdFormat | ContentCreator | AdConcept | ADangle | Landing Page (Link to the DatAds template)

Adset name: CreativeTopic | Targeting | Gender | Age | Location | Rankings | Optimization

Campaign name: Funnel level | year | month | bidding strategy | creativestyle/campaign name/product | optimization

Meta UTMs: ? utm_source=meta&utm_medium=cpm&utm_campaign= {{campaign.name}} &utm_content= {{ad.id}} &utm_placement= {{placement}}

TikTok UTMs:? utm_source=tiktok&utm_medium=_cpm&utm_campaign=CAMPAIGN_NAME&utm_content=CID

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What is a naming convention?

Basically, a naming convention is a fixed scheme for how you name your campaigns, ad sets, and ads in the ad manager on the various platforms such as Meta, TikTok and Google. By naming campaigns, ad sets, and ads in a clear and easy-to-understand way, you should be able to understand the setting made based on the naming convention. This is particularly important if you have multiple campaigns running at the same time. Because this allows you to optimize them faster and easier. In practice, a naming convention is a series of identifiers separated by commas or underscores.

Why a good naming convention is crucial

Most media buyers are organized, but there is often a lack of consistent application of a standardized naming convention. Even if a detailed system has been established, it can quickly break apart due to a lack of discipline on the part of the parties involved. Without a methodical and well-documented naming convention, the following problems can arise:

1. Confusion and Inefficiency: When everyone follows their own naming logic, it becomes difficult to understand and efficiently optimize campaigns.
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2. Difficulties with analysis: Structured naming enables better comparability, particularly across campaigns of creatives, campaigns and tests.
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3. Scaling issues: The bigger the team or account gets, the more important it is to have a uniform language to ensure smooth processes.

A well-thought-out naming convention helps you switch smoothly between campaign planning, implementation, optimization and reporting without losing track of things.

Our recommended naming convention

Ad/Creative level

A clear naming convention at ad level is particularly important. It not only prevents unnecessary testing, but also helps you gain cross-campaign insights from your creative tests.

At the ad level, describe your creative, the copy and the landing page to which you send potential customers.

You can find the latest best practice, including a template from DatAds here.

For example, you could name your ads like this:
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Date | ProductName | AdFormat | ContentCreator | AdConcept | ADangle | Landing Page

e.g. 23-01-23 | Protein powder | Video | Marie | USVSthem | Protein percentage | PDP

Each component has a clear function:

• Date: Helps to schedule creatives
• Product name: Enables quick attribution to the advertised product.
• Ad format: Distinction between formats: image, video, carousel, etc.
• Content creator: To identify who created the ad (e.g. UGC, agency, or internal team)
• Ad Concept: Describes how the creative is presented
• Ad Angle: The core message.
• Landing page: Where the ad leads (landing page, product detail page, etc.).

Of course, you can add further tests to your naming convention. For example, with video ads, you can differentiate between UGC and studio recordings. Depending on the product complexity, it may also be useful to include the Awareness Stage (Problem, Solution, Product Awareness). It is important that you consider the most relevant components that you want to test in the long term — without adding unnecessary complexity.

That is why we have opted for the above mentioned proposal. However, the Creative Angle or the overall Creative Concept should definitely be captured at ad level. In this way, you can analyze in the long term which angles and concepts perform best across different campaigns.

Ad set level

On the ad set level, you describe your targeting and target group settings. If you should use ABO, it makes sense to include an indicator for the creative in this ad set in the name. For example, your ad set name could look like this:

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CreativeTopic | Targeting | Gender | Age | Location | Rankings | Optimization

e.g. WheyProtein 20% Offer | Open Targeting | Men | 21+ | DACH |AllPlacements | PUR

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Creative theme: This could be all elements of the creative, for example.

Targeting: Lookalikes, open targeting, interest targeting. Describe your targeting settings here.

Gender: The gender that should see the ads. Women, men, both.

Age: Always add the age of your target audience.

Location: This can be several countries at the same time, such as the DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) or even specifically individual cities.

Placement: For example, this could be all placements or specific placements that you are currently testing. Like IG Reels, for example.

Optimization: Complete your optimization event. Such as: buy, go to cart, lead, etc.

Campaign level

At the campaign level, you should be able to understand what this campaign is basically about. In other words, the higher-ranking goal, as well as the strategy behind it, should be clearly recognizable. For example, your campaign name could look like this:

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e.g. Prospecting | 2025 | 01 | | AGM | DACH | Testing | SUBSCRIPTION

Funnel level: For example, this could be Top of the Funnel (TOFU), Middle of the Funnel (MOFU) or Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU). If you want to maintain a two-step process, you can call it prospecting and retargeting.

year/month: If you enter both the year and the month, it will be easier for you to analyze later what worked best in which years and months.

Bidding Strategy: That would be, for example: highest volume, cost cap, bid cap, etc.

Region: If you are active in several countries, be sure to add the country abbreviation at campaign level

Testing, scaling, or other indicators A clear clue about what the campaign is about will help you better manage your ad account. This can be a specific product, an indicator of whether it is a testing or scaling campaign, or a specific type of communication. If you work with drops & sale campaigns, you can of course also add these to the campaign names.

Optimization: Here you specify whether you are using Campaign Budget Optimization (CBO) or Ad Set Budget Optimization (ABO).

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Cross-platform and cross-channel structure

Since many companies advertise on multiple platforms (Meta, TikTok, Google), the Naming Convention should cross-platform be able. Although individual platforms have their own structures, the basic logic should remain consistent everywhere. For example:

• Campaign name: Consistent across all platforms.
• Ad Set Name/Ad Group Name: Different names for each platform, but the same logic.‍
• Ad name: The same scheme across all channels.

Naming conventions as a basis for identifying top-performing creatives

The first step to creative analysis is to quickly identify the best creatives. Without a strong naming convention, this can become confusing — different funnel levels, formats and concepts mix and make analysis difficult.

With a clear naming convention, you can filter specifically, such as all video ads with “video” in the name or all top-of-funnel campaigns with “TOFU” in the campaign name. DatAds helps you use this structure and quickly identify your best creatives.

Why a clear naming convention is crucial for successful creative tests

Anyone testing ads wants clear answers: Which creatives work best? Which elements positively influence performance — and which do not?

A structured naming convention is the key here. It makes it possible to compare ads in a targeted manner and to identify patterns in performance. With uniform naming, various variables — such as hook, format or CTA — can be systematically analyzed without data getting lost in chaos.

The better way to creative analysis

A consistent naming convention is essential to make improvements quickly and efficiently. With a clear structure, you can:

• Test and validate hypotheses more efficiently.
• Analyze performance data cleanly.
• Establish scalable processes in your team.
• Work consistently across multiple platforms.

Tools such as DatAds help you use your naming convention to optimally analyze creative strategies and make data-based decisions. In addition, with the tagging feature in DatAds, you can still work with your old ads and analyze them specifically, even if you didn't have optimal naming conventions before. Learn More here via the DatAds tagging feature.

Once you've consistently thought through your campaign names, you'll save yourself a lot of time in the long term and increase the effectiveness of your marketing.

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